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Sunday, February 20, 2011

So in my last post I caught up until Friday and Saturday of this week. Today’s post will deal with some of the joys and frustrations of the last two days. Be sure and look back as I did 2 posts tonight. The joys have been more prevalent but the frustrations weigh heavy on my mind. Friday morning after checking on everything and tagging a few calves I headed for Pasco to do some errands and deal with some issues.

While sorting cattle on Thursday my cell phone slipped out of the ripped pocket of my Carrhart jacket pocket and landed in the manure in the corrals. My phone seemed to still work but the screen was totally blank. Arghhhhhhh, just what I did not need, the inability to scan contacts or screen calls. I headed out to town about noon in Griselda and my first stop was at the bank to deposit the nice check I had received on Thursday at the auction. That went fine and then I went to my veterinarian’s office to get some vaccine, wormer and stuff for myself and my uncle Fred. That went mostly well other than the fact of how high the cost of things are. I walked out with two small paper sacks with a total price tag close to $2000. Anyone who thinks keeping animals healthy is inexpensive should offer to pay my bill.

My next stop was my local licensing agency to buy the plates and pay the sales tax on Griselda. I found it amusing that the only two letters on my new Washington license plate are “BS” with several numbers as well. Next I stopped at our county courthouse and after stripping down to get through security and giving up my “weapon” of a 4 inch folding pocket knife I did the business there I needed to do. I was presented with my “weapon” when I left that was carefully wrapped in a Ziploc bag. *eye roll*

I then went to see about getting my cell phone fixed. I am not making light of those that have actually been assaulted but it is curious to me that the “Sexual assault response center” is right next to the cell phone store. I know every time I leave the cell phone place I feel quite “violated” myself. Cell phone companies really should at least kiss us on the neck before they “service us”. Long story short I will not have a functional phone until late next week. Arghhhhhhhhhhh! I got home a bit later than I wanted and then to top it off I locked myself out of Griselda. I want to thank Christine and Dakota for helping me find my other set of keys before they drove off to LeavenworthWashington for Dakota’s volleyball tournament. Congrats to the O town girls who took second place but did beat a team that has beaten them several times previous to get into the championship!

I had some frustration last night trying to find a heifer of Dakotas that was ready to calve. I eventually found her and her new bull calf thanks to a full moon clear night here in the ColumbiaBasin. I checked everything early this morning and all was well except for one huge disappointment. I found one dead calf that had been absolutely decimated by coyotes. As best as I can tell is this possibly was a twin but tomorrow I need to do a full inventory. I don’t usually fret coyotes too much as good cows can usually ward them off but this particular calf was nothing more than a spine, some legs and a partial head. This was certainly the work of a group or pack that needs some attitude adjustment. The weather has been clear and there is no reason the coyotes cannot find enough gophers, other rodents, corn and apples to keep them full. I am going to have to do some coyote population control over the next few weeks around here. Arghhhhhhh.

After checking and feeding this morning I headed back to Pasco to help my uncle Fred haul and work his fall pairs. That part of today went extremely well but the wind was howling out of the north at about 30 mph all day making it very annoying and cold. It was so cold that my nipples were at least 20 minutes ahead of me all day. His cows and calves looked really good and his crew did a great job helping today.

I got home this evening and did some more cows and calf checking. Things looked ok but I have been back to the spring calvers twice so far because of the coyotes. I plan to go out at least once more and check them and the heifers before turning in tonight. I am hopeful that tonight and tomorrow morning go well as I would really like to watch the Daytona 500 in the afternoon. I hope I did not jinx my chances by saying that.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Thread waisted wasp aka Ammophilia spp.

Today’s picture is a video of cow 16y and her newborn calf, as I was taking this video the cow decided she needed to charge and from the audio and end of the video you can tell what I did in response!I also added a picture just to make up for the 4 second "oh shit" video.